Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Business Management

Code

10423

Academic unit

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Department

Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas

Credits

3.0

Teacher in charge

Célia Maria Castanheira de Moura da Costa Cabral, Joaquim Amaro Graça Pires Faia e Pina Catalão Lopes

Weekly hours

3

Total hours

42

Teaching language

Português

Objectives

This course should make students familiar with the set of issues faced by every working person in his job assignment. More specifically, students are required to understand the basic principles and issues involved in the business world, namely in each functional area in a firm and the cross-relations among areas. This approach is built on the analysis of cases for specific real world firms. Then, teaching is conducted by means of interaction, in theory-practice lectures, where various management problems related with the different functional areas in a firm, along with many examples and exercises.

For the grading of the course under continuous evaluation method, it is actually considered compulsory to conduct a group practice work where a real world firm is analyzed in major areas. For these set of works there should be handed in a written version (and a snapshot page for the classroom mates) to be presented and discussed in class.

Prerequisites

There is not any prerequisite.

Subject matter

1. Introduction: organizations, the firm and the manager''s role. Breifly: Production Management, Quality and Stocks.
2. Strategy&Marketing: Mission, Targeting and Positioning; SWOT Analysis, Marketing Mix.
3. Human resource management: planning, analysis and job description. Performance Evaluation. Motivation.
4. Organization, main aspects. Organizational structures, their determinants and characterization. Notes on behavior and leadership.
5. Accounting: the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement and Cash Flow Map. Ratios and their interpretation.
6. Financial Calculus. Time value of money: present and future; simple and compound interest rate regime; proportional and equivalent interest rates; discounted cash-flows  -constant/variable, temporary / perpetual, full / fractional, normal / in advance / deferred.
7. Analysis of Investment Projects: Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period; Annual Worth.

Bibliography

References for the course should be found in the slides provided in the course homepage in CLIP

Basic Readings:

Lisboa, João et al. "Introdução à Gestão de Organizações", Grupo Editorial Vida Económica, 2004;

Sousa, Antonio de. "Introdução à Gestão: uma abordagem sistémica", Editora Verbo, 1990;

Material available in CLIP page.

Additional useful textbooks: Freire, A., 1995, Estratégia, Verbo; Campos e Cunha, R., 1992, A Gestão de Recursos Humanos na Estratégia da Empresa, Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profisisonal ;Lindon, D., Lendrevie, J., Rodrigues, J. E Dionísio, P., 2000, Mercator, Publicações D. Quixote; Pires, A., 1991, Marketing, Verbo; Soares, J., Viana Fernandes, André Março e Pires Marques, 1999, Avaliação de Projectos de Investimento na Óptica Empresarial, Edições Sílabo; Geraldes, F., 2001, Manual do Empreendedor, Bertrand Editora; Libby, R., Libby, P. and Short, D., 2008, Financial accounting, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Teaching method

Theory-practice lectures involving theory with some applications and exercises and, importantly, the analysis of cases (i.e., specific real world firms and their management problems).

Evaluation method

TWO ALTERNATIVE SCHEMES ARE AVAILABLE:

1. Assignments and Midterms: this grading scheme comprises one group practical assignmentsand two midterms. To pass the course the student needs at least an average of 9.5 points (=0.4*assignments´ grade+0.6*mideterms), out of 20 points.  Specifically, the the first midterm weights 20% and the second 40% on the final grade.

Deadline for the group practical assignments: October 17, 2014

1st midterm - November 8, 2014, 9h

2nd  midterm - December 3, 2014, 14.30h.

 2. Exam: in this case, the exam grade counts with 100 per cent for the final grade; the minimum pass grade is 9.5 points (out of 20 points).

 

ATTENTION: Improving the final grade is done through the respective exam.


Additionally, may add (score/best score)*1.5 points ​​to the final note, if approved, by participation in a business simulation game.

Courses